Quiet, fiercely meticulous and tough, Australian David Higgins is one of the most powerful and ­unassuming executives in the United Kingdom. ­Higgins has been picked to chair the biggest and most controversial infrastructure project in the UK since the rebuilding of London after World War II, the proposed £50 billion ($92 billion) ­high-speed rail link from London to the Midlands city of Birmingham.

Higgins, who was knighted in 2011 for his ­five-year stint as chief executive of the London Olympics Delivery Authority, was chosen for the high-speed rail job by UK Chancellor
George Osborne
. Now chairman of the high-speed rail project, HS2, he will relinquish next month his role as chief executive of the UK’s Network Rail, which each day transports the equivalent of one-sixth of Australia’s population.

Higgins, 58, was born in Brisbane, attended Sydney’s St Ignatius’ College, Riverview, studied civil engineering and became
Lend Lease
’s chief executive. He severed his career ties with Australia a decade ago.

His success in the UK is surprising, as he departed Lend Lease under a cloud, even by his own admission. “You can never leave exactly when you want," he says.

Higgins’ story is one of reinvention and comeback. He was a rising star in Lend Lease and became CEO in 1995. He moved the CEO’s job to London in 2000, for the final three years of his eight-year tenure at the company’s helm.

Different roles

He left as earnings collapsed after selling off the funds management arm MLC to National Australia Bank and expanding the property and construction group internationally, particularly into the US.

“All these different roles have been a series of experiences," says Higgins on a recent trip to Australia. “I’ve lived a series of different lives. I’ve always been prepared to take a lot of personal risks with my career."

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Now it’s crunch time for Higgins, who is preparing a report for the UK Parliament ahead of a crucial vote in March, as well as selecting a chief executive for HS2.

“It’s an intense period now of ­understanding where the project is and ­getting it ­properly resourced by the executives, ­getting everyone comfortable that the design is right and the funding is right, and then ­getting it through the parliamentary debate and the big vote in the house."

The vote in March will seal the fate of HS2, which has had bipartisan support even though its business case has been the subject of some public and political scorn within both Conservative and Labour ranks.

“A project of this size and importance means we have to have the vast majority of Parliament supporting us. It’s no use ­winning by a few votes. That would just be ridiculous and then it would just be ­unravelled if there was a change of ­government in a few years."

Short list

The Chinese government has offered some financing, through building of stations and a link to Birmingham Airport.

Higgins had a short list of three candidates for the CEO role to manage the project’s construction. “I’m delighted. I think they’re the three best people in the country that could do this project."

The fast rail would cut travel times to Birmingham from London almost in half, while the second phase of extending it to ­Manchester, would cut travel time from London by almost two-thirds.

Higgins argues cutting travel time and improving connectivity is crucial in the regeneration of other cities outside London as business centres.

“If you can take Manchester and Leeds and make them only a one-hour journey from London with a train leaving every 15 minutes, that re-positions those cities ­dramatically. Law firms and banks can be based out of Manchester and their costs halve and they’ve got an easy link into London. It would transform the north.

“You can’t have a two-stage country. You can’t have some very rich people that live in an enclave, which is London, and a group that are not benefiting in the wealth, being the rest of the country."

Higgins says the same argument would apply if high-speed rail was built between Sydney and Wollongong, or Sydney and Gosford, or Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

“It’s expensive and the geology is always a tricky thing but it spreads the wealth. We’re facing a next generation that’s going to be ­living a very different lifestyle unless you overcome this issue of connectivity."

Renters

He’s referring to the rising cost of housing both in Sydney and London, which will potentially create a generation of renters.

He accepts building new infrastructure is extremely costly. “Infrastructure is a long-term asset and ultimately it can issue a return. There’s a huge demand globally for infrastructure. Just look at prices people are paying now for mature assets in Australia."

He says there are many similarities between the challenges facing Sydney’s mass transit system and London’s.

“You’ve got a very old network, old technology, mixed-used railway, old systems and work practices, strong demand in terms of growth and government wanting to reduce public subsidy.

“At last in Sydney we seem to have some consensus on what’s important in rail. You need to build the North-West Rail Link and get a second crossing of the tunnel. All I would say is stick to it."

Network Rail is providing some consulting work on the planned $8.3 billion North-West Rail Link.

Harbour development

Higgins was catching up with friends and old colleagues on his Sydney trip and was proud to see Lend Lease had the work for Sydney’s harbour-front Barangaroo site, where a $6 billion office and residential tower and second casino will be built, and also the company’s involvement in the ­redevelopment of Darling Harbour.

“I can remember when Lend Lease was bidding for the very first casino deal with
Kerry Packer
. I was in his office and he had this painting of a large charging bull ­elephant behind him. On his desk was this Perspex box of this model of a casino, which was his vision.

“It was a fantastic vision. It was a ­Skidmore design of a casino shaped in a ­circle with a slot through the middle for mooring yachts. It was going to be further forward than where The Star casino is. It was going to be a bit of a bulge out into the harbour in Pyrmont. The plan was also to have a travelator from Wynyard to this casino. It didn’t win.

“Now here we are today and his son [James] is doing a casino right on the waterfront built out a bit over the water with a travelator going to Wynyard. Kerry’s casino would have truly been iconic."

Lend Lease has spawned many talented executives, although Higgins is arguably its most successful export.

Career boost

Higgins says many of his UK friends thought he was mad taking on the HS2 role.

“I see it differently. It’s such a privilege to work on these incredible companies.

“When I took on the Olympics it was really in a mess. The budget was in a screw up; the masterplan had real challenges."

He says he wants challenging roles.

“Network Rail is one of the most operationally demanding jobs in the UK. Every day 4 million people travel on the rail network and there’s safety issues."

Rail network

Network Rail runs all the rail outside of London and Higgins in his tenure has secured a £36 billion upgrade, after three years of negotiations. This will be spent on Network Rail’s infrastructure to 2019, which includes providing Wi-Fi services on all ­services by running high-speed fibre-optic lines along tracks and having wireless ­transponders to boost the service.

Higgins says the biggest challenge in switching from running a public company to operating in the government orbit, is ­getting all stakeholders on side and being across the detail. He says nobody will do it for you when you’re before a parliamentary or senate committee.

Then he says there’s learning how to deal with ambiguity, building consensus and ­getting decisions passed. “You have to go back to first principles. You need to understand financial modelling, planning and be across all the details, as you don’t have your financial director to call upon and you can’t say I relied on the advice of the finance director. It’s also no use saying I’ll try better next time."

Higgins is admired by both sides of ­British politics but learnt the hard way. In his first government role he worked for an urban regeneration agency and played hardball with a local authority. They called for his head within one month of him being in the job with a no-confidence vote.

Higgins had to rapidly rethink his approach. “You live on patronage and patronage is widespread. It’s from local authorities to oppositions. It’s from ­ministers to civil servants and you really require their confidence and you’re going to be tested on it every day and it will be ­incredibly exposing and very open. You have to be politically aware that everything you do has political consequence for a minister."

Friendly nerd

Higgins became more consultative as a result, but no less a fierce negotiator.

With his owlish glasses and low-key ­manner he comes off as bit of a friendly nerd. But his opponents have learnt that looks are truly deceiving.

“One of the heads of the councils in east London who I worked with on the Olympics said: ‘We used to nickname you the friendly juggernaut. You’re incredibly friendly, you listen to us all then you proceed exactly as you always wanted.’ I thought it was ­incredibly unfair!" Higgins says, smiling.

He had other life plans when the ­government asked him to take on HS2. He won’t disclose those plans but says HS2 will be his last executive role.

Higgins becomes executive chairman for a while and then steps back into a ­non-executive chairman’s role.

Time for travel

“I’ve got a couple of things lined up which give me a whole new side of my career which I haven’t done before and another is an ­interesting area and has a number of ­similarities to what I do now." But it won’t be all work post-HS2. “I expect to spend more time with my wife Ros, to travel more and I love hiking. “The time to do it is when you’re still fit enough to do it."

He expects in coming years he’ll spend more time in Australia and says he still calls it home and will never lose his heritage.

Luckily for him he continues to support Australia in the cricket – and Queensland in the State of Origin.